APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has lost over $106 million within hours due to fraudulence while the bank had a system failure.
The bank on Tuesday said it has formed a task force to go after those who took advantage of the digital banking “system failure” to withdraw or transfer huge amounts of money.
Members of the task force are drawn from security forces and experts from the National Bank of Ethiopia, and it aims is to recover the money that was illegally transferred or withdrawn within six hours over the weekend.
APA learned that the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia does not yet know the amount of money it lost, but it indicated that over six billion birr worth of transactions were conducted in a matter of six hours, and over 25,000 money transfers were made.
The bank said it’s over 6,000 clients were affected by the situation.
APA has learned from citizens’ reports on social media that most money transfer transactions and ATM withdrawals were observed among university students. Jimma University and Addis Ababa University have issued warning statements urging students to return if they have withdrawn or transferred money from the bank and avoid facing legal consequences.
There were remarks that the incident was related to a cyber attack on the commercial bank, but the bank denied that there was one.
It related the incident to an “error in the system.”
Cyber security experts commented that the incident could be related to an attack on the bank’s digital infrastructure from within, although the bank denied that the incident was related to a cyber attack.
Last week, the bank fired more than 200 employees in connection with fraudulent educational credentials.
MG/as/APA